March 2, 2017 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

Cooler temperatures and much calmer conditions headline this Thursday’s weather, and we’ll be dry for the most part in the coming days. But the word snow is in the forecast, and it’s not far away! Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast for tonight through Monday!

Outside our area today, we’ve seen temperatures near the 50 degree mark, with higher elevations in the low 40’s. The big weather news is what happened yesterday, with several reports of downed trees and the record-breaking 1.61 inches of rain from all the storms! That put a major dent in what was starting to be a pretty substantial 2017 rain deficit.

That said, we won’t see anywhere near that much precipitation for the entirety of the forecast. Here’s the outlook:

Tonight-Increasing clouds, with snow flurries late. Lows near 30.

Friday-Morning flurries, partly cloudy by afternoon. High 45.

Friday night-Partly cloudy to mostly clear and cold. Low 22.

Saturday-Mostly sunny. Highs near 50.

Sunday-Mostly sunny. High 62.

Monday-Mostly sunny. High 65.

The Alberta Clipper will make a visit to our area tonight. All that entails is a quick moving low pressure and cold front system that starts off in the Canadian province of Alberta (where my Calgary Flames play hockey!) and zips through the United States. It typically moves pretty fast, so we’ll be done with it by late tomorrow morning.

After that, high pressure controls our weather while a new cold front gets organized along the West Coast and the Northern Plains. So for Saturday through Monday, expect sunny days and cool nights, with temperatures warming as the high pressure moves to our east and brings south winds into play.

Our next chance of decent precipitation will be rain, and that will be here ahead of a cold front by Tuesday, with some rain potentially starting Monday night.

That’s it! Looks like it’s going to be a good weekend, so spend Friday making plans to be outside if you can. Have a good one!